1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system that controls a grasping operation of an object by a hand provided extensionally from a base and having a plurality of finger mechanisms capable of bending and stretching, a control method for the same, a program that causes a computer to function as the control system, a hand as an object to be controlled, and a robot having the control system and the hand.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a robot hand for grasping an object of an arbitrary shape in consideration of a variety of shapes of objects (works) to be grasped and others (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-007486). According to this hand, the joint angles of a plurality of finger mechanisms are controlled such that arbitrary points at the tip ends of the finger mechanisms and the normal lines substantially coincide with a plurality of target contact points set on an object of an arbitrary shape and the normal vectors, respectively.
In the case where actuators are provided respectively for a plurality of joints of the finger mechanisms, however, the number of electric wires and control signal lines connected to the actuators become large. In order to secure a space for wiring in a casing of the finger mechanism, the size of the casing inevitably increases, and the plurality of finger mechanisms may interfere with each other, hindering free movement thereof. On the other hand, simplifying the structures of the finger mechanisms leads to simple motions thereof, making it difficult to grasp an object of an arbitrary shape with the hand.